Increased serum levels of eotaxin in patients with inflammatory bowel disease

Background: The CC-chemokines eotaxin and eotaxin-2. produced by epithelial and phagocytic cells, are potent and selective chemoattractants for eosinophils and basophils. The eosinophil is a potent inflammatory cell thought to play an important role in the pathogenesis of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). In this study we investigated the serum concentrations of eotaxin and eotaxin-2 in patients with Crohn disease and ulcerative colitis. Methods: Thirty-one patients with Crohn disease. 35 patients with ulcerative colitis and 41 control patients were studied. Eotaxin and eotaxin-2 serum levels were measured with solid phase sandwich enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays. Results: Significantly increased serum eotaxin levels were observed in both patients with Crohn disease (289.4 +/- 591.5 pg/ml) and ulcerative colitis (207.0 +/- 243.3 pg/ml) when compared with controls (138.0 +/- 107.8 pg/ml) (P < 0.01). Moreover, patients with active Crohn disease and ulcerative colitis showed significantly higher serum eotaxin levels than patients with quiescent disease (434.0 +/- 776.8 pg/ml versus 113.8 +/- 65.4 pg/ml in Crohn disease and 295.7 +/- 337.1 versus 121.2 +/- 91.9 pg/ml in ulcerative colitis. P < 0.05). In contrast, there was no significant difference in eotaxin-2 serum levels among patients with Crohn disease (863.5 +/- 448.2 pg/ml), ulcerative colitis (1028.3 +/- 431.4 pg/ml) and controls (981.4 +/- 539.4 pg/ml). Conclusions: Eotaxin is significantly increased in serum of patients with active Crohn disease and ulcerative colitis, suggesting that this cytokine may play a role in the pathogenesis of IBD.